Note: With EA Sports’ College Football 25 bringing American football back to the video game world, the Deseret News is simulating every BYU game against an FBS opponent this season.

BYU heads to Dallas as double underdogs for its Week 2 matchup against SMU.

It’s a big early-season game for the Cougars as they look to return to the postseason in 2023 after a one-year absence, and the Mustangs pose an early-season challenge.

How big is the challenge?

To answer that question, we found the answers to those questions in EA Sports’ College Football 25.

The Deseret News showed a simulation of Friday’s game, and it was exciting the entire game.

How the simulation is set up

There were a few basic rules: after some testing and tweaking, I adjusted the simulation to 12-minute quarters (with the option to adjust that in future simulations if needed) and let the computer simulate without user intervention.

Injuries and changes to the depth chart were also taken into account.

For the BYU-SMU game, that meant moving Jake Retzlaff to the QB1 position for BYU. In the video game, Gerry Bohanon is the highest rated quarterback, so I swapped them on the depth chart.

Besides changing some backup positions due to injuries, the biggest change for the Mustangs was that they would primarily retain Preston Stone at quarterback.

In the real world, the Mustangs alternate between Stone and Kevin Jennings, but since there was no user intervention and I couldn’t adjust the depth map during a simulation, it worked to just let Stone play the entire game.

How did the simulation between BYU and SMU go?

Final score: SMU 38, BYU 33

Main game: Early in the fourth quarter, after BYU had pulled within five at 31-26 after trailing by two in the third quarter, the Cougars got a stop on their end of the court on a Retzlaff interception. Isaiah Bagnah helped force a run with a first-down sack.

However, when the Cougars subsequently gained possession, they again experienced problems with turnovers.

Retzlaff attempted to throw the ball to Kody Epps in the flat, but SMU’s Cale Sanders Jr. jumped on the route and connected for the second straight Retzlaff interception. Sanders returned the ball 46 yards for a pick six, giving the Mustangs a 38-26 lead with 7:25 to play.

How the game went: BYU led only once, but the Cougars remained within one score of the Mustangs for most of the game.

Both teams scored three times in the first half, with BYU trailing 17-13 at halftime.

The Cougars briefly led 13-10 on a 21-yard field goal by Will Ferrin with 1:14 left until halftime.

However, SMU quickly struck when Jordan Hudson (who had a great game) caught a 73-yard touchdown pass two plays into the drive, putting the Mustangs back ahead.

The Cougars had another chance to take the lead just before halftime, when Retzlaff quickly got BYU to the red zone. After three straight passes — two incomplete and another to the end zone — Ferrin missed a 21-yard field goal that would have made it a 1-point game.

In the second half, BYU kicked away on its first possession of the third and had to play catch-up after that.

Stone methodically led the Mustangs down the field on their first drive of the second half, scoring on a 10-yard QB keeper to make it 24-13 SMU.

The next three possessions also resulted in touchdowns — two for BYU and one for SMU. Both Cougar scores came on passes to tight end Keanu Hill, of 4 and 26 yards, though BYU botched a 2-point conversion attempt after its initial touchdown to make it a 3-point game.

Hudson, meanwhile, caught a long ball in the end zone for a 51-yard score between BYU’s touchdowns.

This made the score 31-26 at the start of the fourth quarter.

BYU forced a run and had a chance to regain the lead early in the fourth quarter, but Retzlaff’s first-half interception ended it.

That led to a defensive stop from the Cougars, followed by the precious Mustang pick six that gave them enough margin to win the game.

BYU responded with a 75-yard drive, including a 33-yard catch by Parker Kingston on fourth-and-11, putting the Cougars within the Mustangs’ 5-yard line.

After Retzlaff was sacked on first-and-goal, he scored a 15-yard touchdown to Keelan Marion to make it 38-33 with 2:23 to play.

From that point on, SMU stalled the clock by passing 40 yards to Hudson and mounting a strong offense to prevent BYU from regaining possession.

Star players: For SMU, Stone completed 19 of 22 passes for 358 yards and three touchdowns, while Hudson had six receptions for 217 yards and three scores.

BYU was led by Retzlaff, who threw for 494 yards and three touchdowns, though both interceptions came at a cost in the fourth quarter.

LJ Martin, who had a touchdown run of 6 yards, added 139 rushing yards, while Chase Roberts had 12 catches for 186 yards and Hill added six grabs for 100 yards and two touchdowns.

Final statistics: There wasn’t much defense in this simulation: the Cougars finished with 605 yards and SMU had 494.

BYU struggled to finish drives in the first half, scoring just 13 points by halftime despite reaching SMU’s red zone on every possession in the first half.

The Mustangs, meanwhile, never gave the ball away and were 6 of 10 on third down. BYU, in turn, was 7 of 13 on third down.